Conservatism in South Korea


Conservatism in South Korea is chiefly associated with the United Future Party. Within the party, groups such as the New Right promote conservatism. Until May 10, 2017, the conservative Park Geun-hye government was the last conservative government of the Sixth Republic of South Korea.
Starting from the dictatorship of Syngman Rhee, South Korean conservatism has been influenced from the military dictatorships of Park Chung-hee and Chun Doo-hwan. In domestic policy, South Korean conservatism has a strong elitist streak and promotes rapid modernization and social stability.

Values

Conservatism in South Korea is fervently anti-communist. South Korean conservatives oppose relations with North Korea and support upholding the National Security Act. Some conservative citizen groups such as the Korean Council for Restoration National Identity and American and Korean Friendship National Council protested at UNESCO headquarters in Paris in May 2011 to prevent inscribing the records of the Gwangju Democratization Movement in the Memory of the World Register, and to petition for" reconsidering identifying North Korean Special Forces as the perpetrators of the GDM.
Conservatives strongly oppose LGBT rights, with former Liberty Korea Party candidate Hong Jun-pyo blaming homosexuals for weakening the South Korean military and spreading AIDs during the 2017 Presidential Debates.
Jeong Tae-heon, a professor of Korean history at Korea University has expressed concerns that disputes over the term "liberal democracy" reflect a strong conservative bias reacting against North Korea's political ideologies, similar to political views seen in 1950.
It has been alleged that the South Korean right has promoted McCarthyism-like red scares among the South Korean public. This includes an incident before the 1996 Legislative Elections, where conservative lawmakers were arrested for secretly meeting with North Korean agents in Beijing to seek North's help in manipulating the outcome of the election in exchange for payoffs. The North fired artillery into the Join Security Zone on the DMZ, which caused panic among South Korean electorates, benefiting the conservative party.

Media

The Chojoongdong media cartel wields the largest political influence in the South Korean political scene through newspaper and other print publications. The three media cartels have been criticized for fabricating stories against North Korea to support conservative rhetoric.

Conservative parties

The political party that once were ruling party are in bold. KIP is the exception for being a ruling party during Provisional Governmental era.

Mainstream parties

Legislative elections

Local elections